The LPS at the FXB Center serves the northern New Jersey healthcare community by providing HIV/AIDS education and training to treat, manage, diagnose or counsel individuals with HIV infection or to help prevent high risk behaviors that lead to HIV transmission.

You’re planning a training for oral health providers at varying clinics at a designated time. You know you’ll need to use some kind of technology to reach your target audience, but what type(s) of technology should you use and what are the adult learning best practices that apply? How will you market and evaluate the event? And, where can you go to find simple answers to these questions?

Dolutegravir, the newly approved integrase inhibitor, has a number of important drug interactions with other medications and nutritional products. Listed below are highlights of some of the ones most likely to be clinically significant.

With the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enactment, Ryan White funding will continue as payer of last resort for the essential health care services of persons living with HIV (PLWH) in the United States and its territories. This includes AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs) which provide access to medications necessary in the treatment of HIV infection. Eligibility for ADAP includes the following criteria: proof of HIV positive status, proof of state residency, annual income ranges from 200%-500% of Federal Poverty Level (1) depending on the state, and be uninsured or underinsured.

Approximately 85 percent of incarcerated persons pass solely through jails. Each year there are nearly 13 million jail admissions—representing 9 to 10 million unique persons annually—in the United States. This equates to more than 4 percent of the U.S. adult population passing through a jail in a given year, yet most interventions focus exclusively on prisons.

October 1, 2013 – the date when the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) marketplaces open for enrollment – is less than four months away, and there is much still be done to ensure a smooth transition to coverage through these marketplaces. The marketplaces, which will allow people to compare and purchase “Qualified Health Plans” (QHPs), provide a tremendous opportunity for people living with HIV to access comprehensive, affordable private insurance – many for the first time. Maximizing access to private insurance will be particularly important in states that do not expand Medicaid in 2014. However, engaging with and navigating the private insurance options will involve new issues and concerns and a new insurance vocabulary. State HIV/AIDS programs, providers, and consumers are considering the following issues and action steps as they prepare for open enrollment:

To date, the 25 year restriction on using federal funds to support needle and syringe service programs (SSPs) is still in place despite an abundance of scientific research showing that this practice significantly reduces the transmission of HIV as well as other infectious diseases. This federal restriction has continued despite the work of national HIV education and prevention programs like the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, and in spite of attempts by the Obama Administration to lift the ban.

The PPACA directly impacts the role of social workers, especially those working in HIV care settings. The fluctuating landscape of medical, mental health, and supportive services as a result of the PPACA calls for social workers to be actively engaged in the enhancement of human well-being, to provide access to basic resources, and to ensure that the vulnerable, oppressed, and impoverished are included in an environment in which they feel empowered to achieve self-efficacy.

A health care reform “to do” list was presented about six months ago at the November 2012 Ryan White Grantee Meeting. You may have missed it. In a sea of hundreds of sessions at the biennial conference were 11 grantee workshops on ideas and recommendations for Ryan White agencies to take in 2013 and beyond to implement the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Contract with health plans, revitalize benefits counseling, collaborate with state Medicaid officials on HIV/AIDS care issues - the TARGET Center sorted and captured all these ideas in one place: the ACA and Ryan White Learning Modules. There are just four categories but lots of details under each. They are:

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This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number U1OHA28686 (AIDS Education and Training Centers National Coordinating Resource Center) awarded to the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center from the Rutgers University School of Nursing. No percentage of this project was financed with non-governmental sources. This information or content and conclusions are those of the authors and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.